All areas analyzed were classified maximum in IPC Phase 2 (Stress) where the food security situation is under pressure. Compared to the last IPC analysis conducted in April 2014, the situation has generally improved in the arid areas which were mostly in food crisis at that time (IPC Phase 3).

The changing rainfall pattern was irregular and in deficit during the spring growing season (March / July 2014). These conditions have impacted on important agricultural practices (few daily jobs, modest income opportunities) and crop yields. Crops and tubers have significantly decreased (-40 % compared to 2013). The rainfall deficit in areas with low agricultural potential and lack of public investment (especially in agricultural inputs) as well as in areas with the greatest potential have did not allowed a sufficient level of crops. Stagnant food prices and deployment support programs for the most vulnerable have somewhat minimized the negative impact on the food access of households, even if they are still forced to resort to unsustainable coping strategies.

Apart from the Northwest, which benefited from relatively good rainfall (after 3 consecutive years of drought) and humanitarian aid in response to the declared "food crisis", low rainfall was recorded during the spring in other dry areas of the country. This resulted in lower yields of spring and summer crops and crops are insufficient to replenish the food stocks of the poorest populations. This is true for the plains and mountains, the dry plains and plateaus of the North-East, dry plains and mountains of the Artibonite, mountains and cry plateaus of the Center and the island of Gonâve in its entirety. For the departments of the Center, the South-East and the Nippes, the Plains, mountains and semi-humid plateaus were also more severely affected by rainfall deficits, which also decreased the level of food stocks. In these Phase 2 areas, the success of long-cycle crops (Tubers, congo peas, sorghum) as well as the winter season crops (January, February) will be which is of paramount importance for the future of farmers and agricultural workers since it conditions the possibility of prolonging local foodstuffs beyond February and employability already under pressure in these areas.

The factors driving food insecurity are:

• precarious accces to a healthy and diversified diet, despite improvement of food consumption to "acceptable"
• erosive coping strategies, with assets still under pressure (cutting of wood for the production of coal is more oriented towards agro-fruit trees, the sale of livestock serves above all to finance basic non-food expenses (School, health, debt, etc.)
• emigration to the Dominican Republic and large cities in search of temporary jobs
• limited agricultural employment opportunities

Recommendations for the next steps

• Continue efforts to disaggregate the analysis areas (administrative division, agro-ecological zone);
• Expand the Technical Working Groups (TWGs) at the departmental level to perform department-level IPC analyses
• Expand the Technical Working Group to include other stakeholders, include a wider range of areas of expertise and raise the level of analyst frameworks
• Continue efforts to collect disaggregated information (rainfall, market prices, income-generating activities, humanitarian assistance, health and nutrition, water and sanitation, agricultural production, conservation and food);
• Continue to raise awareness among decision-makers (donors, governments, UN agencies, etc.)

Recommendations of the analytical framework of the IP

• Launch the process for conducting IPC Chronic Food Insecurity analyses